So what about your princesses?
by JustSitAndWooui
Summary: Thor and Loki happen to have two younger sisters... until one of them gets kidnapped.


Thor turns around, looking the area that's surrounding them over. He doesn't know any of this but Loki who is lying next to him, a hand on his forehead to make the aching stop. Looking closely, Thor can make out a small town in the distance. If they start walking now, they could get to it before the sun reaches its highest point.

Even though that's the plan and they start walking immediately they do not reach the small town before the Midgardian clocks toll three.

Entering the town, they are greeted by some horses ridden by besashed people in white shirts and with each the same hat on their heads. Most of them are men but there are also a few women leading their horses. They are all riding to the same point in town, which is in its centre and seems to be some kind of meadow, surrounded by a couple of market stalls, selling food and souvenirs. But Thor is mildly interested in this and instead looks at where the riders stop their horses, waiting for the man sitting behind a desk to say something into his microphone.

He greets everyone first, Thor is sure that's what he is doing but he can't understand a word of what he is saying afterwards. Loki knows better than this. He knows that they are not in America like they wanted to, but in Germany. The man behind the desk is speaking German, explaining the rules to a game Loki had never heard of.

One thing the two brothers know for sure is that the horses are involved in this game. Thor, still not knowing what this game was about, already loves it. Whereas Loki rolls his eyes. He is bored. Still, the two of them stay there to see what happens next.

After a while, the people start riding their horses from one end of the meadow to the other, one by one. While doing that they have some kind of bat in their hand, trying to hit a cask that looks like it was hovering over their heads. When they reach the end of the meadow they start over again, riding back, one by one.

Loki doesn't get the sense of it and finds it boring so he wanders around looking at the people's faces who are staring at that cask, finding it somehow amusing that they think this was so very interesting. Thor, on the other hand, is standing still, also staring at the cask.

After a while Thor gets to know from the crowd's cheering, because those always happen either when it is their favourite's turn or when someone hit the cask so hard a small piece of it breaks off, that the goal of this has to be to destroy that little cask. Thor keeps looking at the game, wondering why it takes them so long to do so.

After a while he also decides that the game is boring but he won't yet give it up so he goes to one of the riders and asks them to give him their horse.

During that, Loki finds a good way of entertaining himself, by letting the cask swing from one side to another, so that the riders can't reach it with their tiny bats, by just merely moving his finger. It is even better to see how the crowd cheers even shortly before they hit the cask, not yet reaching it, but think this will be a good one, and then letting the cask hop to the other side so, nevertheless, they don't reach it.

Loki enjoys that he can see the hope in their eyes before slowly drowning it and replacing it by disappointment, which he enjoys even more. But after a while even that gets boring so he continues wandering around, a little confused when the cask keeps swinging. There is absolutely no wind, so he doesn't understand how this can be possible. He had watched this game a little before so he is sure it is not part of the game to make the cask jump from left to right. And since he is not doing this anymore he really can't explain to himself why this is happening.

Until he sees a little girl, standing on the other side of the field, barely visible for Loki, pointing her tiny finger from one side to another looking always either on the riders faces or the cask and grinning. Loki takes a few steps closer to take a proper look at her. She doesn't look older than seven. Her short hair that is maybe shoulder-length is tied up in a high, messy ponytail. Her hair is blonde but under her bangs a few black strands are shining through as if she is wearing a badly adjusted blonde wig over her normally black hair. The little girl is wearing a sweatshirt that is way too big for her. It was probably supposed to be white once, a long time ago, but now it just looks grey and brown with spots of dust and grass on it. One of the sleeves is torn off, but it looks as if she has done that on propose. Which was understandable since it is way too warm for a sweatshirt anyway. Since the shirt is too big for her it is only covering one of her shoulders because it is always sliding down. The short shorts she is wearing nearly disappear under her shirt. Her feet are bare, and like Loki assumes, probably covered in dust and tiny scars. When Loki starts walking up to her, not yet sure what he wants to do but maybe talk to her, she suddenly sees him and when he blinks and opens his eyes again afterwards she has disappeared.

Loki turns around, trying to find out where she went but he can't see her anywhere. Asking a lot of different people, someone finally tells him what he wants to know about the girl. Apparently her name is Leonora, but she's got a lot of different nicknames. She seems to be known by a lot of people around. She comes from another city, a few kilometres away from this one, where she lives on a camping ground. Loki decides to go to that camping ground and see if she went there or if he can find out something more about her. So Loki decides to leave the little game, that doesn't interest him anyway, trying to find the girl they called Leonora.

Meanwhile, Thor managed to get one of the riders to give him their horse. When it is his turn, he rides towards the cask, which looks so tiny in his opinion, swinging Mjölnir and hitting the cask, destroying it with one hit only. After staring at the place where the cask was just seconds before, the crowd starts to cheer at him, still not quite understanding what just happened.

When Loki reaches the camping ground he goes to the reception first to ask the woman behind the desk for a little girl named Leonora. She knows immediately who he means and gives him directions. She seems to be well-known around here. Leonora doesn't live in a tent but in an old caravan, which seems to be standing here for years, decades even, already. As well as the girl's sweatshirt, the caravan probably used to be white... a long time ago. Using a little magic, Loki opens the door in no time.

Despite his expectation, the caravan's walls are painted in a happy sunrise-like orange. Well at least those parts of the walls that aren't covered in posters of bands, movies or comics he had never heard of, or shelves filled with books, DVDs and CDs. All in all the trailer is rather small but it seems to have everything in it that a little girl would need. Or maybe not, now that he looks closer.

There was just one bed which would means there can't be any parent in here with her. Or they'd have to sleep on the floor... There is a small table full of notebooks of different sizes and colours and a lot of pieces of paper all over it. She had written on some of them, drawn on some others. She doesn't seem to be a rather tidy person, according to her desk, but looking at the shelves and walls, Loki would take that back immediately. The books are arranged nicely, the best ones are turned that way that one can see the covers when standing in front of them. Loki takes a look at those

Sherlock Holmes, Parade's End, A Song Of Ice And Fire... The books looked very old. Opening the books; Loki can see a signature in each of them. 'To Leonora', each of them reads, with a short comment added by the author, as well as their signature, of course, and a date. Reading over the comments, they all confirm that the books he is holding in his hands now are the first ones ever published. Loki's eyes widen at that. That can't be possible, can it? Well so can't what happened at the meadow, he thinks.

The other books in the shelves are rather new and thick, but one can see she read them. Why would a seven year old read books like those? He looks at the CDs, never having heard of the bands, they all seem to be pretty modern. Whereas the DVDs were mostly about old themes. Movies about books for example, and he can find the DVDs to the oldest books he just held in his hands.

Looking at the walls again he realizes that they aren't only covered in posters like he had thought at the first sight but also photos and paintings. He sees one by Van Gogh, with Leonora's name on it. He raises his eyebrows.

The photos are a combination of black and white, sepia and coloured photos. He starts going through them from right to left, from coloured to black and white. Loki sees pictures of the little girl hugging a blonde-haired little boy; swimming in the ocean; riding a horse. Then more photos of her with other children around her age. But most of them of her with that boy.

Then he goes on to the lower quality ones. He doesn't see the boy on those anymore. Those show the little girl in front of the caravan he is in now, back when it was still white on the outside. She already has that sweatshirt on but it looks just the way it looked when he first saw her.

In fact, looking at the other photos he doesn't see a single one of her without that sweater but one. It is black and white; she is wearing a summer dress, but looks sad. She is crying. The left side of the photo, which is the side where her sleeve would usually be, was burned. As if she wants to push that part of her past away. This seems to be the oldest photo; she wears the sweatshirt in all of the following photos.

Loki takes it in his hands, turning it around, reading what was written on its back. 1876, it reads. That can't be possible. How can that be her? She looks the same in all the pictures. Seven years old from 1876 -at least- until now. Loki is staring at the photos trying to comprehend what he just saw when suddenly the door opens and in steppes the little boy from some of the photos.

"What are you doing in Leonora's caravan?" He asks in German.

"I am waiting for her to come back," The god replies, looking at the little blond haired boy.

"I don't know you. Who are yo-," The boy wants to ask but Loki interrupts him mid-sentence.

"How old is she?"

The boy raises his eyebrows but replies anyway. "She's seven. A year older than me."

"And for how long has she been seven already?"

The boy gasps and closes the door behind him. "What are you here for?"

"Leonora! Isn't that obvious? What's your name, little boy?"

"...Ianto."

"I have never heard of a name like that before."

"Nono named me. It is a character from one of her favourite TV shows," He explains.

"Who is Nono?" Loki asks, slightly confused.

"That would be me!" Says a girl, standing in the doorframe behind Loki and -who appears to be called- Ianto. "Nono is his nickname for me. He's the only one who's allowed to call me that," She explains, confidently looking at Loki. "Ianto, I'd like you to go outside. I want to talk to this man in private," She says, looking at her friend.

"But-"

"No buts! Don't come in unless I tell you to, alright?"

"Sure," Ianto replies, leaving Loki and the girl alone.

"So, you are who they call Leonora?" Loki asks, grinning.

"I suppose I am," She replies, looking him deep in the eyes. "And you're Loki, I know that. But what I don't know is why you are here. Why would you come to Germany, and especially to that little town here? What do you want?" She looks more confident than Loki had expected and he is surprised to hear that she knows who he is, but he doesn't mention that.

"My brother and I just... wanted to have some fun."

"Oh, so you're telling me that Thor is here as well?" She asks and Loki really can't figure out if she sounds excited or bored.

"He is."

"And now why would you come to stay in my caravan?"

"I saw you at that little... party in the town," He replies, a little confused by the many questions the seven year old is asking.

"So you saw me making that little cask hop from side to side, I assume?" It is a question but she doesn't wait for Loki to answer it. "Yes, of course. That's when I saw you as well. You know, that is actually my thing to do during that game. I was a little confused to see you there. Well, I'm guessing you now want to know how I did that. But that would be a stupid question, seeing as you're capable of doing it yourself. No, you want to know why I can do it! Why I am ABLE to do it! Now, those questions are smarter," She sits down on the chair in front of her desk, pointing at the bed for Loki to sit down.

She is taller this way and she probably feels stronger. "I believe you already took a look at my photos?" She asks and Loki can only nod, being fascinated by the way she talks compared to the way she appears. She looks so small and innocent, he wouldn't have expected her to talk that way.

"You see... I've been seven years old for a long time now. I believe I shouldn't be. I came to Midgard-" Loki raises his head, looking her deep in the eyes. "When I was... let's say I was about three years old. I can't really remember anything that has happened before but I grew up like a normal kid, until I realized that it couldn't continue that way. I was different than other kids. If I'd keep growing up that fast I would be a living dead soon. So I stopped and I've been seven years old ever since. When I was on Midgard for about 50 years I realized I had powers and started to train them. I can teleport, which is fun, and also the way I got the books, you know?" She says pointing at the oldest ones, "I had to move a lot of times, until I found this place here about... 50 years ago. They sort of opened an orphanage here. The owner is drunk most of the time so he didn't notice I don't get older. The other kids don't stay for a long time so they don't get it either. And then there'd be Ianto. I named him after one of the characters from my favourite TV show. He came here when he was about two weeks old. I took care of him. And we've been best friends ever since. I think he noticed something tho-",

Loki takes that opportunity to interrupt her. "Where did you come from?" He asks and suddenly Leonora looks sad.

"I... I don't know. It's like everything before the day that I came here was deleted."

"Let me see your foot," Loki says, pointing at it. She raises her eyebrows, but does what he wants her to do. Loki's eyes widen when he sees what he's been looking for.

"Yeah, I know. Looks weird, doesn't it? I've had it for my whole l-," She doesn't get to end her sentence, because Loki already pulls her out of that caravan, passing Ianto who's staring at him.

"What are you doing with her?" He screams, trying to fight him.

"Trust me. I know what I'm doing!" Loki replies, teleporting himself and Leonora to where he left Thor.

"Thor, we need to go home. I found someone father should see!" He explains. Thor only looks at him, being more than confused.


End file.
